Joe Haldeman’s novel The Coming begins almost at the end: the tension in the story is provided by the approach of an “alien” space ship due to arrive in Florida three months after the story opens.

Once astronomers have discovered the space ship, it is almost forgotten. 
The focus shifts to the astronomers themselves and those about them, and the novel becomes one of social satire. 
The Florida wetlands have been paved over. 
Ozone depletion forces people to slather themselves with heavy-duty sunblock and has made tattoos the fashion for covering skin-cancer scars. The sweltering heat of global warming drives everyone into the shade... in late autumn. 
Sexual nonconformists are outlaws and live in fear of their lives. 
Narcotics are legal, the city is ruled by organized crime, the state is governed by a religious fanatic, and the country is threatened with extinction at the hands of presidents who are inarticulate morons.